


Vivienne Slightly Approves

by CatKing_Catkin



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Chases, Developing Relationship, Emotional Baggage, Emotionally Repressed, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Human!Cole, Humor, Insults, Introspection, Learning to be Human, Misunderstandings, Non-Consensual Haircuts, Parent-Child Relationship, Vivienne cares a little bit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-27
Updated: 2015-01-27
Packaged: 2018-03-09 06:09:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3239195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatKing_Catkin/pseuds/CatKing_Catkin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You worried for me."</p><p>"I was concerned about you, demon."</p><p>Takes place between "Subjected to His Will" and "Wicked Eyes, Wicked Hearts". Vivienne might not like the company she's being forced to keep for the sake of the mission, but she'll be damned if she lets this motley collection of losers embarrass themselves when the fate of the world hinges on a good impression at court.</p><p>For reasons entirely of her own, and having nothing to do with certain conversations, she decides to start with Cole and his hair. Cole learns a little bit more about getting along with people, and a little bit more about Vivienne in the bargain. Iron Bull is mostly along with the ride</p>
            </blockquote>





	Vivienne Slightly Approves

**Author's Note:**

> So, admittedly, this fic was mostly spawned as a thought/speed writing exercise. Seeing if I could still a.) write a fic under 2000 words and b.) write it in a day. The first part didn't quite happen, but I'd say I got admirably close, given my track record. Still, it's probably no surprise that Vivienne got involved this time around with all of that in mind. There's no one better for cutting right to the point.

Skyhold castle was abuzz with preparations for the imminent departure of the Inquisitor and her inner circle to the Winter Palace. Everyone was needed for something, everyone had to be in three places at once, everyone had their own projects to keep track of. Everyone had somewhere they had to be and something to get done.

This was, perhaps, the best explanation for why almost no one put the pieces together for the sight that played out all up and down the castle one day. That sight was Cole scurrying by one moment, shortly followed by Vivienne stalking by in the same direction the next. They both looked very, very intent for very different reasons. Almost everyone was too busy to pay close enough attention to the fact that Vivienne also happened to be wielding a pair of scissors.

Cole didn't have much more of an idea what was going on. All he could tell was that Vivienne was very, very determined to do something involving him and the pair of scissors, and given Vivienne's usual attitude towards him, even Cole could not believe she meant for anything pleasant to happen to him as a result.

She didn't call out for him to stop. She didn't bargain, or threaten, or command. She just kept coming, sure as a storm, confident that in the end she would be victorious. Because Cole had no real knowledge of what her goals were, he couldn't ask for help. Even if he had been certain, he wasn't certain he would have. After all, to ask anyone to get between Vivienne and her goals was tantamount to asking them to show fear before a Pride Demon.

So all Cole could do was keep out of her path the best he could, and hope that he would weather the quiet fury of her storm and come out the other side untouched and unscathed.

It was a hope that was fast proven futile when, as he trotted up the garden steps to the wall yet again, he realized that the looming shadow up above wasn't a piece of parapet a split second after it was already reaching for him. It would soon prove to be a split second too late, and Cole found himself suddenly and bodily lifted clear off the ground, two strong arms pinning his to his sides. A voice, a familiar voice, chuckled with undue and inappropriate amusement by his ear as he tried to squirm and kick his way free. "Easy, kid! Where's the fire?"

"Thank you, darling," said Vivienne, marching up the stairs to join them, and then up the last two stairs to take her onto the walltop, at Iron Bull's eye level and just above Cole's. "I was just thinking that this game had gone on quite long enough."

Cole couldn't actually sense anything from either of them, which only heightened his own fear. Whatever was about to happen, neither of them felt the faintest bit guilty or upset about it. The Iron Bull even sounded amused, and not in that way he sometimes did where he was only trying not to be horrified instead.

"What's going on, The Iron Bull?" he asked, shrinking against the Qunari's chest as Vivienne reached out towards him.

"Relax, kid," said Iron Bull, in what was, for him, a gentle tone of voice. His grip tightened in response to Cole's struggling, but only to the very barest outer limit of what could cause real pain. "And stop squirming. We don't want to take your ear off."

"Though that can certainly be arranged," said Vivienne archly. She twitched his hat off with one hand, the scissors flashed in the sunlight, Cole shut his eyes...

_Snip._

_Snip, snip, snip_ . He felt the cold brush of a blade against his forehead, but only for a breath, and then another _snip_ but no pain and he didn't understand...

"Honestly, ma'am, he's shaking like a leaf. Couldn't you at least have given him a little warning?"

"If I am expected to trust my life to it, the least it can do is trust this rat's nest of hair to me."

Curiosity overcame fear, at that, and Cole risked opening his eyes. He did so just in time to see another couple of stray tufts of blonde hair, his hair, tumble free from his head and drift lazily away on the breeze instead. Vivienne stood two steps above him, the better to keep her a little above his eye level from where he was being held off the ground. She wore a look of intense concentration beneath her hat, her gaze fixed just above Cole's eyes. At his forehead. At his hair? He couldn't see very much beyond that, because his hair kept drifting down in front of his face and her hands were moving too quickly, fluttering like birds along with the beak-clacking sound of scissors snipping. Every so often, he felt the brush of fabric as a sleeve brushed against his cheek.

"Though I am starting to doubt the wisdom of trusting my life to it now that I am also genuinely starting to doubt that it can even _see_ ," Vivienne continued on sternly.

"I can see," Cole protested, his voice sounding a little weak even to his ears. "I don't always need my eyes."

"You will in Halamshiral," she said. It was the tone of voice she used to command wisps to do her bidding, a shock on top of the shock of even being directly addressed by her. "There is a reason even Orlesian masks have eye-holes, and it is not merely for the sake of mortal convenience. In the playing of the Great Game, if you cannot even look your opponent in the eye, you are seen as unconscionably weak. Base. _Common._ So utterly lacking in control of yourself, so utterly unaware of how to compose yourself, that to eliminate you from the Game is seen as almost a mercy."

 _Snip, snip, snip_. The blades left his forehead and Cole caught a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye by his ear instead. He flinched, he couldn't help it, and fully expected to have his ear taken off in punishment. Yet without even seeming to think about it, Vivienne flicked the scissors up at the last minute, sparing him.

"If the Inquisitor absolutely _insists_ on involving you in matters you cannot possibly comprehend, then I owe it to our cause to see that you are at least not utterly slaughtered in disgrace. I will _not_ permit you to shame yourself or others in those hallowed halls."

"Don't take it personally, kid," Iron Bull added. "She's been like this all week. Hell, she's going to make me wear a shirt to this shindig. And I think she's planning on going after Sera next."

"She composes herself little better than he does," Vivienne snapped, and resumed cutting apparently before she could even realize what she'd said. "I hold out little hope of parting him from this ridiculous hat, and I doubt even Orlesian formal wear would be a kindness to him at this point, but all the same..."

And then she did realize what she was saying, and stopped talking. Cole could almost feel Iron Bull's grin behind him even without the use of his other senses. Indeed, even his heart was fluttering pleasantly in his chest, like a bird testing its wings in the sun.

_You're calling me "him"._

But Cole was learning many things about his new friends, what to say and what to keep silent about. So all he said out loud was, "I like my hat."

"So I've noticed," Vivienne replied, quietly and not quite as arch as before. She sounded tired, and Cole was sorry to feel it. Sorry to take such quiet joy in something that she still found so difficult to come to terms with.

There was silence from all three of them while she took care of the hair around his other ear. Then Vivienne stepped back to regard him, arms folded, scissors hanging half open. Cole couldn't help but notice some of his hair clinging to the front of her clothes, pale blonde almost invisible against the white but not quite. Vivienne deigned not to notice, however.

"Now, then. Now that we all understand one another, if I permit Iron Bull to set you down, will you sit still like a good demon while I trim the back? Or will this get even more unpleasant for all of us?"

"I'll sit still."

"Iron Bull?"

Cole felt Iron Bull look down at him. He, in turn, looked up at Iron Bull. The Qunari's face was silhouetted in sunlight, a struggle to see, but their gazes met and held for a long moment. In the end, the Qunari smiled in understanding before looking back up at Vivienne. "He seems sincere enough to me."

"Very well. You may release him."

This Iron Bull did, setting Cole down carefully on his feet and unwrapping his arms. Cole found himself forced to take a moment to work some of the dull ache out of his shoulders, before one look at Vivienne had him sitting down obediently on the stone steps. Vivienne settled herself down gracefully on the steps just above him, Cole felt her reach out, and the chorus of clattering scissor blades resumed. To Cole's pleasant surprise, Iron Bull even took a seat on what little of the steps remained available beside the two of them. Keeping them company, basking in the familiar bite of home from Vivienne, keeping an eye on Cole, _poor kid, I know how she can take people, I hope he understands_...

 _I do_ , Cole thought, and almost smiled. _But I promised not to tell anyone_.

_"You worried for me."_

_"I was concerned_ about _you, demon. You have grown adept at killing. If you cannot begone, then I would prefer that you remain pointed at the enemy."_

 _"No...you were worried. The part of you that forgets I'm me_ cared. _You wanted to go away. You think caring makes you weak. Don't worry. I won't tell anyone."_

It was still nice, all the same, that Vivienne was apparently slowly starting to be okay with letting other people know on her own. If not with words, then with actions and forgetfulness.

There was still silence between the three of them for a long moment, however, until Vivienne deemed herself prepared to break it.

"You are a demon that is, for reasons of your own, playing at being human," she said levelly. Cole knew she wasn't just trying to remind him, even if she was still wrong. "But if it is a game you insist on continuing, I will see that it is one you play _properly_ . I don't care what sort of ridiculous rules people make up for themselves or the games they deign to play. I only care that they do me the courtesy of playing them _well_."

"I'll try," said Cole, and meant it.

"Good. I suppose that is the most any of us could expect from you, but...see that you do, all the same. As I have tried to impress upon the Inquisitor many times before, it would be _inconvenient_ to have to remove you now. You really have become so very adept at killing, after all, that to have you on our side is unfortunately the only possibility that makes sense. And besides." She brushed her hands roughly down his back, knocking stray hairs loose with enough force to send Cole swaying forward for a moment. "The Iron Bull seems oddly fond of you, doesn't he? I would hate to be forced to listen to him mope if anything should happen to you."

"You really would, ma'am. I can mope with the best of 'em." Iron Bull reached down to ruffle Cole's newly shorn hair, sending even more stray strands spiraling loose. Cole really did hear Vivienne frown her displeasure and swat his hand away. "Just as well that nothing's going to happen, isn't it?"

"Just as well," Vivienne agreed primly, before settling in to finish her work. Cole was content to sit still and let her.

He didn't really feel any different, when Vivienne was done. The world certainly didn't seem any different. Cole hadn't been lying when he'd said that he didn't rely entirely on his eyes to see. His head felt lighter, and that might feel pleasant, later, but for now it just felt odd.

Vivienne was looking at him just a little differently, however. He could tell that she was aware that she was looking at him differently, even if she kept the word itself locked tight behind a safe who's combination she'd forgotten.

Cole thought it just might have been "approval", however. And if he was right - it was still hard to tell if he was, sometimes - then no amount of strangeness could change the fact that this suddenly felt like an afternoon well spent.


End file.
